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In the first days of January, Vilnius residents complained that classified waste was not being removed in the Old Town, Naujamiestis, Naujininkai, Karoliniškės, Šnipiškės and other districts.
These fears also reached the ears of the Ministry of the Environment and the Municipality of Vilnius City. On Friday, Environment Minister Simonas Gentvilas met with Vilnius city leaders to discuss sorting issues for secondary packaging and other waste.
At a government meeting on Wednesday, Minister S. Gentvilas acknowledged that there is a systemic crisis in packaging management: “Not only do regions suffer from non-removable hoods and non-removable hoods, but Vilnius residents also see that the Sorted waste bins are clogged and not removed. “
Vilnius residents were outraged that there was no place for classified garbage: they litter anywhere
Residents were outraged that the sorting trash cans were overcrowded, so people threw trash where it fell and saw a big mess. The complaints registered during the last days were also available on the website kordumiesta.lt.
Residents of Smetonos Street in the old town complain that plastic, paper and glass garbage has not been removed since Monday. As a result, all the garbage is now thrown away and turns into a large garbage can. Residents are outraged by this sight of downtown.
Residents of I. Šimulionio Street in Karoliniškės district also share that the paper and plastic container is overcrowded. Residents dispose of classified waste in household garbage containers. According to Vilnius residents, this situation has been going on for more than two weeks.
Newly arrived residents complain when garbage collection changes have been made, they say they constantly live in chaos. According to them, everything is due to classified garbage: paper and plastic.
“There has never been a collection machine when we were on time according to the established schedule, we were late from a few days to more than a week. It is not pleasant to be constantly calling and asking me to explain why the garbage was not taken out again the next row Why do we pay taxes to the municipality? The support of the EU is very simple, because nobody cares about the problem. It is not a pleasure to push containers and see how the wind or stray dogs scratch and scurry down the street.
Maybe we’ll finally get along this year. Because I really don’t understand where the problem is: if you see that you can’t detect certain days, set other days. You want to know the exact days and take out an empty container at night. In this way, nature is not polluted and we are glad that everything is in order, ”Vilnius residents complained on the website“ orderumiesta.lt ”.
Complaints of undelivered containers also flew from Darius and Girėnas streets, MK Čiurlionis, T. Ševčenko and Krakow.
Garbage collection will be more expensive for part of the population
In mid-December last year, the Vilnius City Council approved the amounts of the new waste management fees. When approving the modifications, set the 2021. toll rates by categories of real property.
The amount of the fee for waste holders will be determined by the weight of waste actually delivered during the previous year. Urban dwellers who have managed their waste responsibly, tried to sort it, and thus significantly reduced the total amount of mixed waste, can expect slightly lower or similar waste management fees next year.
The amount of the toll for individual container users will depend directly on the amount of municipal waste mixed. If this amount increases, the total amount of the toll will increase accordingly, since there is a direct relationship between the variable part and the weight in the calculations, reported representatives of the municipal waste company Vilnius Waste System Administrator (VASA).
According to them, the fixed part of the toll will decrease slightly, while the variable part will increase slightly (4.6%). It is true that the representatives of the company could not answer how many people or how much waste would make their removal more expensive due to the increase in the variable toll rate. This is said to become clear next year after counting the waste actually disposed of. Among other things, next year VASA plans to strengthen controls over waste containers and carriers.
Vilnius Municipality wants to change the law: “We are in a desperate situation”
Vilnius Deputy Mayor Valdas Benkunskas told the tv3.lt news portal on Friday after the meeting with the mayor that the problems, known for a long time, have worsened during the holidays.
“What the municipality and the neighbors can do is ask the goodwill packing organizations and their contractors to be kind, clean and remove the glass containers, the paper boxes that have fallen on the containers.
All the legislation allows us now is to ask. It is. Vilnius residents pay for this system by paying a toll. Our institution “Vasa”, which is mainly engaged in the maintenance of the mixed waste management system, received many calls about secondary packaging, took the time to register the non-shipped secondary packaging packages and asked the representatives of the packaging organizations to clean and remove residues.
We are trapped, now we are hostages and we are seeing the situation through our windows, but we are in a desperate situation when it comes to sanctions, because now we do not have the legal power to force to dispose of this waste and remove it in time ” said the deputy mayor.
According to him, the main problem, which the ministry also sees, is that the current law stipulates that the municipality must agree the conditions with the packaging organizations when announcing a tender for the management of packaging waste.
“The terms of the tender must be mutually agreed. We have opposing interests here. It is in the municipality’s interest that the system itself works in a sustainable manner, so that there are as many containers as needed, so that they are served with the often needed. Clearly, it costs money. Packaging organizations have the opposite goal, to spend as little money as possible and save as much as possible. These negotiations on the terms of the tender in Vilnius are carried out over six years and not we can reach no agreement.
It is our request to change the law and say that the municipality has the right to unilaterally set the terms of the tender and announce the tender.
The ministry gave some hope. {…} An employee of the Ministry was mentioned that the possibility of modifying the Law on Containers and Waste Management was being considered, which would grant the municipalities the right to independently organize these tenders for the management of secondary packaging. “It will be difficult to say whether it will become an” organism, “said the deputy mayor.
Green Dot – intends to solve problems in the near future
Kęstutis Pocius, director of the organization “Žaliasis taškas”, told the news portal tv3.lt that after seeing the comments in the media, we contacted the municipality and requested that information be provided at addresses where there are congestion.
“We do not receive any information from the municipality. Then we immediately contact the carriers. We asked them if they had identified any major discrepancies, congestion, what was the problem. We did not receive a response from the carriers that there was a big problem.
In the third case, the workers themselves sat in the cars, drove those containers, and took pictures of what those sites looked like. Maybe somewhere a toilet was found next to the bins or the tire fell off. But there would be a mountain of garbage next to the dumpsters, we didn’t realize. We have not received any complaints from residents, “commented K. Pocius.
According to him, it received great interest and attention from the Ministry of the Environment.
“People have seriously and responsibly decided to solve these problems. Today, the opinions and positions of the Vilnius municipality, manufacturers, importers and organizations were heard.
The main objective of our organization as “Green Point” is to improve the collection of packaging waste both in Vilnius and in other municipalities. We are trying to do that, but we don’t have every opportunity to guarantee it now.
We have to cooperate with municipalities and we have specifically asked Vilnius city municipality to provide all addresses where packaging waste is generated so that we can really see how many and where containers are needed, to expand the container network for be as close to the population as possible. For optimal service, empty timely.
Unfortunately, we do not receive answers to these questions. We asked for this information more than a year ago and we continue to repeat those questions to the municipality, but we do not receive answers and information. I do not know the reasons why they do not give and do not allow us to really see how the service is carried out, see how many containers are needed and guarantee quality security. As a result, such problems may have arisen.
However, these issues must be addressed in a systematic way. Today, it was agreed that we would look at it from a brief perspective: how to effectively address the issues that have arisen. And in the long run, how to reform the system itself to ensure efficient management. In the short term, we have agreed that, in cooperation with the Ministry of the Environment, we will exchange questions and information between the municipality and between the organization on the lack of data and information to guarantee the quality of service provision. The Ministry of the Environment will coordinate this process. After exchanging information, we will find common solutions to ensure that these problems are resolved as soon as possible to ensure quality service.
Next week, on Tuesday, we will again ask the Vilnius city municipality what data and information we need to further negotiate the procurement conditions with the municipality for the selection of new or existing carriers, to conclude contracts and provide the complete system: how often to service the containers, how many additional containers to build how monitoring and reporting will be carried out, ”said Director K. Pocius.
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